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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-052-005
Lawrence E. Newman served in Malawi working in education in an urban area. The interview describes his experience as an African-American serving in the Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Linda Millette, June 12, 2005. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-047-006
Stephen Nagler and his wife, Iris, both worked on John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. They joined the Peace Corps and were assigned to Nyasaland. Nagler taught day and evening classes. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia A. Davis, April 23, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-047-005
Iris Nagler served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nyasaland (Malawi) from 1963 to 1964 as a science teacher. She and her husband, Stephen, trained at Syracuse University in October 1962. They arrived in Nyasaland in January 1963, and were assigned to a Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) secondary school, the Henry Henderson Institute, in Blantyre. Nagler established a science lab and taught science courses. She also talks about hearing of President Kennedy's assassination and the local reaction. Interviewed and recorded by Linda Millette, April 23, 2005. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-007-002
Rowland Bennett served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nyasaland (Malawi) from 1962 to 1964 as an English teacher. He was in the first Peace Corps group sent that country. Bennett trained at Syracuse University. He was assigned to Robert Blake School in Kongwe, which was a boys' secondary school run by Protestant Afrikaner missionaries. There Bennett taught English, supervised night study, managed the choir, and introduced basketball. He was also able to attend Malawi's independence ceremony in 1964. Bennett feels that his Peace Corps experience has allowed him to effectively serve diverse populations in his career as a librarian. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, October 5, 2004. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-075
Edythe Ben-Israel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 1968 to 1970 on a health project. She was motivated to join the Peace Corps to learn about other cultures, travel, and do some good in the world. Her training was interrupted by her mom's unexpected illness, and when she was ready to return to training she had to change from the health program to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Fortunately, when Ben-Israel arrived in Malawi she was able to switch back. She and her counterpart set up clinics to work with mothers and children to help teach them how best to supplement the children's diets. She also taught health at a local school. Ben-Israel relates a frightening incident in Malawi when a volunteer got stoned, but also recalls a rewarding time when she danced for and met the president. She felt accepted into the community and feels she got more out of her experience than she ever could give. She also talks briefly about the importance of Peace Corps in connecting Americans to other cultures and peoples. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, April 6, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-017
Jaclyn ("Jackie") Tayabji was served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from June 2016 to January 2017 as a secondary education English teacher. She discusses her motivation to join the Peace Corps, her training in Malawi, and her work as a teacher while stationed in Mphomwa. Tayabji also talks candidly about her loneliness in her post, which ended with a medical evacuation due to her self-reported alcohol abuse problems. However, she reflects positively on her experience overseas and on how the Peace Corps handled her medical situation. [Archivist's note: Tayabji states in the interview that she completed treatment and has been sober since her return to the U.S.] Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 26, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-006
Christian Erek Porter served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2011 to 2013 as a management consultant in the environment sector. He did his language and cross-cultural training at Dedza University and in a village in central Malawi. Porter lived in a Tongan village near Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi during his service as a management consultant to the Nkhata Bay Honey Cooperative. During the interview he tells how he spent the first four months of his assignment doing market research by traveling to grocery stores all over the country, watching Malawians choose which honey to buy, and talking to them about their choices. He then, with buy-in from the co-op's directors, put in place modern business practices and trained the directors on how to sell co-op honey at premium prices to return maximum profits to the honey farmers. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan Browning, August 26, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-003
Katherine Ackerman Porter served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2011 to 2013 as a community health adviser. She did her language and cross-cultural training at Dedza College of Forestry and in Mkomeko, a village in southern Malawi. During the interview she tells how she supplemented her language skills with creative gesturing and dance. Fighting through malaria issues, Porter worked with Malawian counterparts in Dwambazi Rural Hospital and with a women's sewing group to help with its marketing efforts. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan Browning, September 25, 2019. 1 digital audio file. Note: The interview date given in the introduction is incorrect.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-024
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Esther White Kaufman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 1964 to 1966. Interviewed by phone, January 30, 1994. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).